Frequently Asked Questions

The Facility Advisory Committee, a diverse steering committee of about 60 citizens, community leaders, campus staff, and parents, met to study and prioritize the district’s needs and this bond proposal is based on their recommendations. The purpose of the Facility Advisory Committee is to collaborate to review and prioritize needs for capital improvement projects in San Angelo ISD. 

The Board of Trustees call for an election.

If bonds are approved by voters, bonds are sold to investors.

Proceeds are used for approved capital projects.

The tax rate is set in two parts: one to cover the operating costs (payroll, supplies, equipment, insurance, utilities, etc.) and the other to pay principal & interest due on the bonds each year.

Funding for Texas’s public schools comes from three main sources: local property taxes, state funds, and federal funds.  The majority of funding for San Angelo ISD comes from state funding and local property taxes.

A school district’s property tax rate consists of a Maintenance and Operations (M&O) tax rate and an Interest & Sinking (I&S) tax rate. These two tax rates are combined to total the school district’s overall tax rate.  As its name suggests, the M&O tax rate provides funds for the daily operational costs of a school district. San Angelo has the lowest total tax rate of the 6 school districts having an attendance boundary in the county. The I&S tax rate provides funds for payments on the voter-approved debt that finances a district’s facilities.  The total tax rate for San Angelo  ISD is $.81231 which is the lowest tax rate in over 20 years.

The SAISD M&O tax rate is $0.7249 and funds the general operations of the District. This part of the tax rate pays for employee salaries, utilities, supplies, gasoline, etc. School districts are a people-intensive business, and most of these funds go toward personnel costs.

The I&S tax rate is $0.08741 and is often called the debt service tax rate. Funds generated from this tax rate go toward paying off the debt generated by the issuance of school bonds. This is similar to the part of a household budget that pays for the home mortgage. School bonds are issued as funds are needed for approved school projects and are generally not issued all at once. Most school bonds are issued or paid for over 25 years. However, the repayment period for short term assets, such as technology items, are paid off much more quickly.

Bond money may be used for new schools and facilities, expansion and renovations of existing facilities, furniture, technology, equipment, buses, and new school sites.

Bond money can only be used for capital improvements and related costs. They may not be used for employee salaries, utilities, and other such operating expenses.

Since 2019, state law requires all bond propositions for any school district to have the phrase “THIS IS A PROPERTY TAX INCREASE’ on all ballot language for bond propositions. Homeowners age 65 & older who have filed for and received the Over 65 exemption will not see an increase over their frozen dollar amount, if there are no major improvements.  Check your most recent Notice of Assessed Value Change to see if you will be impacted.

The State Property Tax Code allows for school property taxes on an individual homestead to be “frozen” at the age of 65. If you are 65 years of age or older and you have filed for the “Over 65 Homestead Exemption”, there is a ceiling on the amount of school taxes to be paid. The only exception is if improvements are made to a home. As such, a tax increase from a new bond program cannot increase the applicable tax ceiling of a taxpayer that has qualified for the “Over 65 Homestead Exemption.”

For questions regarding the Over 65 Homestead, please contact the Tom Green County Appraisal District on the web, by email, or by phone at 325-658-5575. 

• Veterans who have a 100% disability rating or surviving spouses of a member of the U.S. armed services killed in the line of duty would not see an increase in taxes. 
• Tax Code Section 11.131 entitles a disabled veteran awarded 100 percent disability compensation due to a service-connected disability and a rating of 100 percent disabled or of individual unemployability to a total property tax exemption on the disabled veteran's residence homestead.
• Tax Code Section 11.133 entitles a surviving spouse of a member of the U.S. armed services killed or fatally injured in the line of duty to a total property tax exemption on his or her residence homestead if the surviving spouse has not remarried since the death of the armed services member.

By law, the role for any school district during a bond election is to share factual information with the voters so the community may make an informed choice as to whether they wish to support or oppose a bond proposition. The District should also be responsive to citizens’ questions related to the bond issue and to ensure voters know when and where they have an opportunity to vote.

Financial transparency is vital in the relationship between the school district and the community.  San Angelo ISD has numerous financial postings on our website page https://www.saisd.org/financialtransparency. The district's financial information should be considered property of the community and as such would also be shared upon request. The District has won numerous financial and transparency awards, many of those going back for 20 years or more.  It is also worth noting that for the 22nd year in a row the district received a rating of “Superior Achievement” with a perfect score of 100 on the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) rating.  Our SAISD finance team takes great pride in this rating.   

While grass may seem like a more cost-effective option at first, synthetic turf offers long-term savings and greater usability. While turf fields do have a higher upfront cost, they require far less maintenance, conserve water, and can be used far more frequently—grass fields often need downtime to recover from heavy use, limiting access for students and programs. Over time, this results in lower costs and greater value for students, athletics, band, physical education, and community use.

Here’s a comparison of the estimated 10-year costs and usage of grass vs. synthetic turf for a typical football/soccer field:

^{The above examples are based on a well-maintained natural grass field. All costs are estimates.}
The bottom line: turf fields offer more than three times the usability at a lower cost per hour over time, making them a smart investment for both fiscal responsibility and expanded student access.